Secreta Animas
by MusicUnwritten
Summary: When a spell goes awry, each of the members of the Secret Circle acquires a daemon, the anima or animus of their souls. While in the process of trying to get their daemons back in their bodies so they could live normal lives, witch hunters attack. Fayana :3 Crossover with His Dark Materials, but no main characters from it.
1. Chapter 1

**Diana's P.O.V.**

Witch hunters.

Witch hunters were the cause of _all_ of our problems.

Ever since John Blackwell had come back to Chance Harbor, me and my circle have constantly been stalked and attacked by witch hunters. They are evil people who kill witches simply because we're different.

There is no safe haven, no way to protect ourselves. Adam's father, who hadn't had any kind of power for sixteen years, was killed just a few weeks ago. Cassie's grandmother, too, had just been killed three days ago…right in front of the circle.

They were coming for _us_ next.

That's why all six of us, all of the Chance Harbor witches, were gathered around the three Books of Shadows we had access to—mine, Cassie's, and Jake's—looking for absolutely anything we could use to protect ourselves or drive the hunters away.

So far, the Books had yielded nothing. We were all shaken by the repetitive attacks on our parents and grandparents, especially considering how much stronger Cassie's grandmother had been compared to us.

We had been sitting there, completely silent, in the abandoned house for several hours and I was about to tell everyone to give up for the day and go home when Cassie spoke up.

"Here," she said, pointing to some writing in her Book of Shadows. "This is a spell to strengthen us, make us more independent. It seems pretty simple, actually…" the blonde stated.

"Really?" I asked. Strengthening was just what we needed, and the spell was all we had at the moment. "Maybe we should do it." I looked around to take note of the others' opinions.

"I'm up for it," Adam said. "And the moon is waxing; perfect for bringing on something new."

"I'm always ready for more strength of any kind," Faye stated, smirking. I wished she was less power-hungry; sometimes I was afraid she would get into trouble.

I looked at Jake and Melissa, awaiting their approval. Jake shrugged. "Why not?"

Melissa was the only one left to answer. I wasn't about to make her do magic against her will, but I really thought we could use some better protection against the witch hunters.

After what seemed like an eternity, she nodded. "Okay," she said.

I sighed in relief. Maybe we could finally help ourselves. "Okay, let's meet at…the beach. Tonight. Is that okay with everyone?" I asked.

Once everyone consented that they could come, we dispersed. I lingered in the back of the room while everyone else disappeared through the door.

"Melissa." The shorter girl turned in the doorway; she was the last to leave. "Can we talk for a moment?" I asked.

"Of course," Melissa said. "What's wrong?"

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I inquired. "Because, I mean, you didn't really seem sure a few minutes ago…"

"Yeah. In fact…" Something changed within Melissa. She perked up, a strangely eager glow in her eyes. "I think it's a _wonderful_ idea. I wouldn't miss this for anything."

"Okay…" The way she had said that was odd, somewhat eerie. I would never know how to explain it. I shook it off; maybe she was just getting a cold or something. "Well, do you want a ride home?" I offered.

Oh, no thanks," Melissa said. "I'm just gonna stay back here for a little while."

"Alright," I replied, grabbing my things off of the couch. "I'll see you tonight, then." I didn't think she heard me, but that's okay. She seemed to be interested in Cassie's book, which was still open on the table. Maybe she'd find another useful spell.

* * *

"Okay, Cassie, do you have your Book?" I asked. The older girl nodded and held out the small leather journal.

"Right here." The circle watched as I gently took the Book from her hands and read over the spell. It was just an incantation, a Latin one.

I placed the book at my feet and rose up, taking Cassie and Jake's hands into my own. The rest of the circle linked hands, ready to cast the spell.

"Animae separatae a corporibus nostris," I began as my eyes closed. I immediately felt energy surge through me. I'd never known a spell to take effect so fast.

"Animae separatae a corporibus nostris," the rest of the circle joined in. "Animae separatae a corporibus nostris, animae separatae a corporibus nostris, animae sapara—"

Somebody gasped and stopped chanting. More voices stopped and I heard shouting. I tried to open my eyes; they seemed to be glued shut. The incantation continued rolling off of my tongue and I was unable to stop as much as I tried. I could still hear one other voice chanting—Cassie's, I thought.

_What the hell?_ I felt a tugging at my core, what must have been the very center of my body. It began to hurt, like something was trying to pull my organs out of my body. I could feel and hear the wind pick up, and leaves and sand began to whip against me, creating tiny cuts in my skin.

Cassie and I kept chanting; I assumed she wasn't able to stop, either. I felt sick to my stomach and pain erupted in my chest.

"Diana, Cassie, snap out of it!" I heard Adam yell. _I can't!_ The words wouldn't come out of my mouth.

"Break the circle!" Melissa screamed into the wind. I felt Jake rip his hand out of mine and somebody wrenched the other out of Cassie's.

Finally, I was able to open my eyes and to stop speaking. The beach was a wreck; it looked as if a tornado had swept through the area. Some trees had lost several large boughs, one of which was dangerously close to the circle.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Cassie gasped. She was clutching at her chest, and I realized that I was holding my own, as if trying to stop the thing inside of me from springing out. "I was chanting, and it felt _right;_ it was so easy…and then it started to hurt…"

Everyone was staring at us. "What…what's wrong?" I asked. _Other than the obvious?_ What…who had said that? Somebody was in my head. It was a voice I didn't recognize; not my own. Or…maybe it was. I didn't know. I was just so rattled; I must have been imagining it.

"N-nothing…okay, it's okay," Adam was saying. "Is…is anybody hurt? Like, _really_ hurt?" he asked. I gulped and shook my head with everyone else. "We…we need to go. Nobody do any magic. Not until we talk about this."

"Diana." It was Faye's voice. She had appeared beside me without my noticing. "Um, do you want to stay at my place tonight?" she asked.

"Um…" I wasn't sure what her intentions were. I couldn't handle any funny business, especially not anything to do with magic. And if Faye wanted anything in the world, it was more magic.

"I just think you should stay with someone. You don't look very good," she clarified. Well, I didn't _feel _very good, either.

"Oh…um," I murmured. I was unused to Faye being…well, anything other than a bitch, to be honest. But she seemed to genuinely want to make sure I was okay. "Yeah," I said. "That sounds…nice. Thanks."

* * *

**Okay, so that was the first chapter of my story! Yayyy! I know it's not the best (I didn't start at the beginning but got impatient and added a quick one in) but trust me, I've got ten thousand more words of this written, and you guys will determine how fast I'll crank these things out xD I hope everyone enjoys my first fanfiction! Reviews would be nice ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, I'm uploading this chapter right now and I'll try to keep a regular schedule from now on; one chapter a week at this time on Saturdays ^^ I forgot to mention that I haven't seen the last four episodes yet and while I do know about Diana being Cassie's half-sister, I don't know how she found out or how she reacted. So just keep that in mind in the coming chapters :3 **

"What was it like from your perspective?" I asked Faye. We were on our way to her house. "I couldn't see anything. Do you know what went wrong?"

"Other than the fact that you and Blondie couldn't stop running your mouths?" the taller girl questioned. I looked at her disapprovingly and she sighed, turning her eyes back to the road. "Well, it seemed fine at first. In fact, it felt _good_, just like Cassie said. But then it felt like something was tugging at my insides." She gave me a sideways glance. "Pardon the…uh, mental image."

"Yeah, I felt that too," I murmured. "But then what happened? I heard shouting."

We were sort of stuck. We couldn't move very much. But why did it affect you and Cassie more?" she asked.

"I mean, with Cassie's dark magic, who knows how she can be affected by things like that? But as for me…I have no idea."

"Has anything weird happened to you since we broke the circle?" Faye asked, glancing at me worriedly. "Like, mentally?"

I cocked my head, confused. First, why would anything weird have happened to me? Second, why would Faye of all people be worried about it if nothing deathly serious was happening? "Um, no," I finally answered. "Why?"

The other brunette shook her head. "I'm sure it's nothing. I'll tell you when we get there."

"Thanks for letting me stay the night, Ms. Chamberlain," I said to Faye's mom. The former rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand and dragged me up the stairs.

"Yeah, no problem, Diana," Ms. Chamberlain called.

"Okay, now will you tell me what's going on?" I asked once we were in Faye's room with the door shut and locked. "What's so important that I can't even say 'hi' to your mother?"

"I—I don't know," the older girl murmured. "Hold on." She disappeared into her bathroom and returned with a small mirror. "Um, look," Faye commanded, handing the mirror, then beginning to pace around the bedroom.

I looked at my reflection—and gasped. On the right side of my face, a symbol appeared to have been burned into my cheek. It looked the symbol on the cloth that my grandmother had used to try to kill Cassie. "What…what does it mean?" I asked. I'd never seen anything like it before.

"I have no idea," Faye said. "Cassie had one too. Do I have one?" she asked. I shook my head, and she seemed to relax a little.

"Good, one of us needs to be un-cursed," she said. I glared at her. "Okay, okay, sorry. Let me just change and we can look for something," the other brunette said, stripping her shirt off. I looked away to give her some privacy, but ended up looking straight into a mirror anyway.

"Faye…" I said, turning back around. "There's a symbol on your chest," I continued. Faye looked down at the red mark on her otherwise flawless skin.

"Shit," she cursed. "Guess we've all contracted whatever magical disease you and Cassie unleashed."

"Oh, please don't say it like that," I whined. "We don't know whether or not it's bad. Maybe…maybe the spell actually worked. Maybe…" Faye gave me that look, _her_ look, and I covered my face with my hands. "Oh, who am I kidding? How could I have done this? The whole circle could be in trouble, and it's all my fault…"

"You're damn right," Faye muttered. "Do you have your Book with you? Maybe we can fix this." I shook my head.

"I only have what I had at the beach. I don't even have a change of clothes." I hesitated, glancing at the older witch. "I'm so sorry, Faye. I seem to cause a lot of harm, don't I?" I sighed. "Just…I'll go home and look through my Book. I'll look all night if I have to," I said, standing up and making my way to the door.

"Wait," Faye said, grabbing my arm. "I don't…I don't think it's safe for you to leave. You still look really sick…"

"What are you talking about? I feel fine," I told her. I looked at the other girl. "You know, you look pretty shaken too. Maybe this can wait the night…" It was true; tiny beads of sweat were springing up on Faye's face despite the cool temperature and she seemed pale.

"Can I borrow some make-up?" I asked. "We don't need your mom finding out about what happened; I need to cover up this mark."

"Knock yourself out," Faye said, gesturing toward her dresser. She sat down on her bed, waiting while I made the red symbol on my face more skin-toned. I turned back around to see that Faye had drawn her legs up onto the bed and was hugging them to her chest, her face buried in her knees.

"Faye, are you alright?" I asked, worried. Faye never let anything break through her cold hard exterior, not even sickness. She must really be feeling awful.

"Yeah, it's…it's nothing," she said into her legs. "I j-just have a stomach ache is all. It'll g-go away soon."

I wasn't buying it. Just because Faye wasn't the nicest girl ever doesn't mean I didn't care for her. We'd known each other since birth and we had to be there for each other. "I'll go get you a glass of water," I told her, exiting the bedroom.

The Chamberlain kitchen was vacant and the rest of the lights were off. Faye's mother must have gone out without telling us. I found a glass in the cupboard where I knew they would be and filled it up with ice and water from the fridge.

I gasped as pain suddenly shot through my chest and stomach. I quickly set the glass down on the counter before I would spill it. The tugging sensation had returned, and at full force. I doubled over, my breathing quick and shaky. I felt hot tears pour out of my eyes because of the pain, and despite all of it, for some reason the only thing I could think of was _Faye._

Black swarmed my vision, and I was out before I even hit the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so…I may have lied about a regular schedule. I'm already getting review withdrawals and I've barely started the story, so I'll just update whenever I feel like I should xD Luckily for you guys, that's probably more often then I really should. I'm gonna run out of material if I keep this up, but I'm still writing at a steady pace, so there shouldn't be really long breaks between chapters any time soon :) Enjoy! And reviews are apparently my new and improved drugs xD**

* * *

"Diana." _Faye? Ms. Chamberlain? _The voice was unfamiliar to me, but it was sweet and caring. "Diana, wake up." I felt something nudge my side and I rolled over, trying to think before I even tried to open my eyes. What had happened? I felt good…no, I felt_ great_.

I opened my eyes and let out a yelp of surprise. Standing in front of me was a small red-gold deer. Its rich brown eyes seemed to be looking deep into mine.

"Faye?" I called. "Faye, there's a deer in your house…" This was just too strange. After what had happened earlier at the beach, then Faye and I having coordinated pains, and now a random _deer_ staring at me in her kitchen. It was rather small; probably a whole head shorter than me standing up. A doe.

The animal seemed ethereal, like it shouldn't really be there. But as I lay there, mesmerized, unable to sit up for fear that the graceful creature would bolt, I reached out a hand and gently made a connection with the soft skin on her muzzle. She _was _real.

"Now, how did a pretty girl like you get in here?" I cooed, finally pulling myself into a sitting position. The deer didn't even flinch, but as I looked into her eyes it seemed as if she understood my words. How odd that animals could do that sometimes.

However, I wasn't expecting an answer.

"Don't you know? You brought me here," the doe said in the same light, tinkling voice that had woken me up…and, I realized, had spoken in my head after the incident on the beach. I could feel happiness radiating off of her. "You set me _free._"

"I—I did what?" I mumbled, ignoring the fact that I was speaking to a talking deer.

"You let me out," the deer told me. "You and your circle, you let us _all_ out. I can feel it. One of us is upstairs."

"Faye…" I murmured. Was Faye being spoken to by another deer at that very moment? Why a deer? "Wait," I said, cutting off my thoughts about the other witch. "What _are _you?"

"You didn't know what the spell translated to…" the doe whispered to herself. "'Let our souls separate from our bodies'. I'm your soul, Diana," she said. "A…a daemon."

I rubbed my eyes. I was beginning to get a headache. I decided to play along for now. "Okay, yeah…so, do you have a name?" I asked.

The lithe creature hesitated. "…Raelia. The Witch Serafina Pekkala called me Raelia."

* * *

"Diana!?" I heard Faye yell from her bedroom. _Faye._ I couldn't believe I had forgotten about her. I had been so immersed in talking to Raelia that I had never even gone up to check on her. My so-called 'daemon' and I stood up quickly, rushing to the base of the stairs.

"I need to go up," I said to Raelia. "I'll be right back." I began to sprint up the staircase, only to drop to my knees in pain when I got to the top. It was the pulling sensation. It was back. I gasped in surprise, even though it wasn't nearly as bad as before.

"Come back!" Raelia called. She was tense, and she was shaking, her head lowered. I slowly made my way back down the stairs.

"Diana, are you still here?" I heard Faye yell. I heard her door open and light footsteps sounded as she walked down the hallway.

"I'm here," I called, reuniting myself with Raelia. The pain had receded the closer I had gotten to her. Together, we slowly made our way up the hardwood stairs.

We nearly ran into Faye when we reached the top. She looked slightly bewildered, her hair sort of messed up and her eyes red and puffy. I realized that I probably didn't look any better.

I watched as a small orange and white head poked out from behind her legs, its beady orange eyes looking at Raelia and I warily. A red fox. It was absolutely…_adorable._

"Aww, who's this?" I asked, stepping forward with my hand outstretched to pet the animal. It quickly jumped backward, laying its ears flat.

"Don't touch him!" Faye and Raelia shouted in unison. I snatched my hand back, startled. I looked from the other girl to my daemon, confused.

"It just—it felt wrong," Faye stuttered. "I don't know what came over me." She hesitated. "…Sorry."

"It's fine," I said. After I thought about it, I realized that, for some reason unknown to me, I wouldn't want anybody touching Raelia, either. "Um…what's his name?" I asked rather awkwardly.

"Chas," Faye told us. Us, being Raelia and I. "Um, Chasterion, actually. But we thought, you know, he should have a nickname." The older witch seemed sort of uncomfortable, as well. It was like we were just meeting each other for the first time. "What's…yours' name?"

"Raelia," I said, then glanced at the doe beside me. "Or…Lia, for short. She told me that's what a Witch called her. Is that the same for Chas? A...uh, Serafina Pekkala?"

"That's what he said," Faye shrugged. "And that we did this; brought them out, you know? I feel…I feel vulnerable, Diana. I _hate_ feeling vulnerable." Wow. Faye was talking about her feelings to _me_, and without someone forcing her into it. Maybe this was stranger than I thought.

"Oh, relax; I can take care of myself," Chasterion said from where he was now sitting beside Faye. "Besides, now you have someone to talk to about all of your conspiracy plans." I looked questionably from the fox daemon to Faye and back again. "Just kidding," he added.

"We need to find the rest of the circle," I said, pulling my phone out, ready to text the other four members. "Maybe they've heard something else. As cool as it is to have a talking animal with me, we need to put them back."

"What? What are you talking about?" Chasterion yelped. "I just got out; I don't want to just be that little voice in the back of her head again! I have a _body_ now."

"I think it may be for the best," Raelia whispered, stepping closer to the fox, lowering her head so she was at eye level with him. "I like having a body too, but this could be a problem."

"How so?" Something gleamed in Chasterion's bright orange eyes and he stood up. I could tell he was getting fired up…just like Faye often did.

"Because," I said, butting in. I didn't want to know what would happen if the fox daemon attacked my own. "You can't get more than a couple of yards away from us. We tried…and it hurt. I can't imagine what it would feel like if we were further apart." I instinctively rested my hand on Raelia's back, stroking the soft sorrel fur. "We wouldn't be able to go to school, or the store, or anywhere that animals aren't allowed. _Especially _because you aren't just like pets; you look like forest animals. Not to mention…what would our parents say?"

Chasterion's ears twitched and he averted his gaze. I could tell he understood. I felt sort of bad, but our lives would just change too much doing this.

I entered the rest of the circle's numbers into my phone and sent a collective text message, telling them to meet us at the abandoned house. "Okay, let's go," I said to Faye, beginning to help Raelia maneuver down the stairs.

"What, so you just say we're going to have a meeting about this and we all go?" Faye asked. "I don't feel like going anywhere right now. I'm not going."

I sighed. I knew Faye's decency streak wouldn't last. "Yes, Faye," I said decidedly. "You're going. We need to figure out what we need to do about this…development."

"But it's midnight! If you want to go so badly, can't you just take notes and give them to me, or something?" the other witch pleaded. I shook my head and grabbed Faye by the wrist, pulling her down the stairs. I wasn't in the mood for her attitude.

On the way out the door, I heard Chasterion say something to Faye. I may have misheard, but I thought he had said… "Isn't she _gorgeous_ when she gets like that?" Faye had quickly shushed him. I kept walking, pretending I hadn't heard but smiling to myself for some unknown reason.


	4. Chapter 4

**Yeah, I know this chapter is probably going to be intensely boring, but it's information that people need to know if they haven't read or seen the Golden Compass. About the daemons: I'm sure none of them fit perfectly. I literally went to the 'Yellow Pages' thread on TDF and had to look through about forty pages to find forms that sort of fit each character xD To be honest, Faye's daemon being a fox is probably more fitting than Diana's being a deer.**

* * *

Faye and I were the first to arrive at the abandoned house, despite the fact that it had taken awhile to fit Raelia inside Faye's car. The others arrived soon after. They had not even needed to ask what the meeting was about.

Cassie and Adam had ridden together, and when they walked in they were followed by some kind of sea bird and what looked like a hunting dog. Melissa arrived right after them with a golden retriever and Jake came last, a possum lazily sitting on his shoulder.

"Okay," I began once everyone was somewhat comfortable. The awkwardness of having the daemons was beginning to take effect. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I said the first thing that came to mind. "L-let's let our daemons introduce themselves…" I said uncertainly. Raelia stepped forward, willing to speak first.

"My name is Lia," she said, her gentle voice soothing some of the tension that had built up inside of me. She glanced around at each of the other daemons. "It's nice to meet all of you."

"I'm Chas," the fox daemon said from where he was currently being stroked on Faye's lap. His voice was slightly rough, but sounded younger than us humans whereas Raelia sounded a bit older. I guessed it was a maturity thing.

Cassie's tern—or, that's what I assumed he was—introduced himself next. "Ossindrick. You can call me Sin."

"My name's Adelesia," Jake's daemon added. She hesitated, looking around at Lia, Chas, and Ossi. "Or, um, Del," she decided. She must have assumed she needed a nickname.

Adam's daemon, who was apparently a German shorthaired pointer, was named Pinseline, and Melissa's retriever daemon's name was Ghambor.

"Well, it's good to…meet…all of you," I said, kind of stumbling over my words. Knowing that these animals were the very essences of the people that in most cases I had known my whole life was somewhat unnerving. More so that they knew it too, and Raelia was standing there in front of everybody. I realized what Faye had meant about feeling vulnerable.

"Um, does anybody know anything about this situation? All I know is that the spell we did earlier brought our souls…outside of our bodies. And that we can't go more than a couple yards from them. Lia and Chas also mentioned a Witch named Serafina Pekkala, but neither of us have any idea who she is."

I scanned the faces of the circle, hoping someone had something to share. Then—"I know about daemons." Adam stood up and nervously took the floor. "I don't know if it's really anything to go off of, but there are these books—they're called _His Dark Materials_. So far, most of what the daemons were in those books is true—and there was a character, a Witch, named Serafina Pekkala." He hesitated and I nodded, urging him to keep going. "She wasn't a witch like us, but one that flew around on a branch of cloud pine and stuff, like one of those stereotypical Witches minus the broom.

"Hold on, let me back up. All of these people apparently live in a different universe, one parallel to this one and to thousands of other ones. And in this universe, people's souls live outside their bodies in the form of animals. Daemons. There are Witches and Armored Bears and Gyptians and a whole bunch of stuff that would take hours to explain. But there was one character—a boy from a world like ours—that had gotten into the daemon world. Once, he had to go to, well, the underworld, I guess we would call it. Not Heaven or Hell or Purgatory. Just…the land of the dead. They had to leave their daemons behind, and since the boy didn't have one, his soul was ripped from his body and left in the living world.

"What I'm trying to get to is this: Will—that was the boy's name—and his daemon were still separated, even when he came back to the 'real' world. But they didn't have to stay close to each other like 'normal' people; they could stay as far away as they wanted. And one of the Witches from the daemon world, Serafina, named the daemon Kirjava…"

"And now she's named our daemons, too," Cassie murmured. "But why? And if they were forced out of us like Kirjava was, how come they can't get further away from us? This doesn't make sense…what did we _do?_"

She was referring to the spell. Even Adam didn't have the answers to those questions. But that didn't mean the rest of the circle didn't have plenty more for him.

"Adam…" Faye said, seemingly uncomfortable about asking him any kind of question. "Earlier, at my house…Diana almost touched Chas. And it felt so _wrong;_ I snapped at her—and so did Lia. How come nobody can touch him? Honestly, I feel sick at the thought of any one of you putting your sticky fingers on him."

"They mentioned that in the books too," Adam told her. "It's like a taboo to touch another person's daemon; it's like the biggest violation of privacy that can be made. The only time it was acceptable was when two people were in love. Like, _really_ in love."

That seemed like as reasonable an explanation as any. I thought about whether or not I would want Adam to touch Raelia, seeing as how we used to date and I still felt something for him sometimes, and I realized the answer was no. No, I wouldn't like it if Adam touched my daemon.

It was almost liberating, realizing that. I would have thought about it some more, for the concept was pretty interesting, but Adam was talking again—answering a question that I hadn't heard being asked.

"Well…when a person dies, so does their daemon. That was pretty obvious from the beginning. When a daemon get's hurt, their human does too. I'm going to assume that if something awful happened and your daemon died, you would as well. But let's just hope we don't need to deal with that."

"And if a person was separated from their daemon?" Melissa asked. "What would happen then? Would it just be like what you said about the characters in the book, or would they, you know, die?"

"Well, I'm just assuming," Adam told her. "I really have no idea. But I'm sure it would hurt, like how it felt as they were coming out of us. Except the pain wouldn't go away until they were together again. I mean…I guess if the person had a really low pain tolerance, they could die."

"Okay, can we please wrap this up?" Faye asked, standing with Chasterion in her arms. It was actually pretty amusing, the tough girl holding the cute little animal. "I'm bored and my mom's probably back from wherever…now…" She trailed off; everyone was staring at her. Chasterion was giggling a little, and it was painfully obvious that she was lying. "Okay, fine. But I do want to go home. We've been here for too long. I'm actually really tired."

"Faye's right," I said. Drowsiness was catching up with me and it was showing; Raelia was even having trouble standing still without letting her head droop. "We can talk more about this later. I want everyone to go home and get some rest."

"Diana," Adam said, walking up to me. "Um, can we talk for just a minute? I think there's something that you should know," he added.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked, pulling out of the rest of the circle. He looked slightly nervous, as if he shouldn't have been talking to me.

"Well, I'm no stranger to the concept of daemonism," he told me. "I've known Pinseline here for a few years, actually; she just wasn't outside of my mind, you know?" He hesitated, and I wondered where he was going with this. "Well, I'm not the only one. There's a forum full of people who know their daemons and…well…you may want to do a little bit of research about your kind of daemon."

"My kind of daemon?" I questioned. "What do you mean? She doesn't seem any different from everyone else's."

Adam was beginning to look extremely uncomfortable. What in the world was his problem? He'd never acted that way around me before. "I mean…the fact that she's the same gender as you. I don't know if you'd want anyone else to know what it meant, and honestly…I don't even know if it's true, so that's why I didn't mention it in front of everyone else, but…No, you know what? It doesn't matter; don't worry about it. I'm sorry I mentioned it."

"Um…o-okay…" I murmured. I didn't know what Raelia being female had to do with anything, but it had obviously stirred Adam up. I figured I would just look for something on the internet the next day. It couldn't be _too_ important, could it?


	5. Chapter 5

**This one's a little short, but I'm running out of material. I really need to get a move on with my writing O.O **

* * *

My dad was asleep when I got to my house, thankfully. I was glad I wouldn't have to explain the talking deer to him just yet. She managed to squeeze under my bed in the morning while I called him in to tell him I was sick and couldn't go to school. As much as I hated missing school, I couldn't go if Raelia had to follow me everywhere.

After my father left, and got on the computer to look up daemons. The conversation I had with Adam had been picking away at my mind the entire night, making sleep pretty difficult. I dozed off a few times, but always woke up with the same nagging thoughts in the back of my head.

There was a Wikipedia page on daemons, which was surprisingly easy to find. The concept of daemonism had been going on for quite some time; most of us had just been oblivious to it. I read the page, interested in finding out as much as I possibly could about the situation. One paragraph, though, I had to read several times. A person's daemon is normally the opposite gender…someone with a daemon the same sex as them may be special, have a second sight or something…but most people believed a person like that was_ homosexual or transgender._

Did Adam think I was a _lesbian?_ Not that I have anything against them; in fact, some of the few friends that aren't in the circle are gay, and I love them, but…I just couldn't picture myself with a girl.

Oh well. It didn't matter. Didn't matter whether or not Adam thought I was into girls, didn't matter if I _was_ into girls; I wouldn't change any. At least having a female daemon didn't mean I was evil or anything; _that_ would worry me a little.

I continued to look through more pages on daemons and the books that Adam had mentioned. They actually seemed _really_ good; I made a mental note to read them once this craziness was over. But then, an idea developed. It wasn't a very good one, nor was I sure it would work, but it was worth a try.

Apparently, there was a way to travel through the worlds: a tool called the Subtle Knife. Only certain people could use it to cut windows into different worlds, but I thought, just maybe, if we could find one of those people and the knife, we could get into the daemon world. It was a crazy thought, probably brought on by sleep deprivation, but I was sure people in that world would be able to help us.

And, for the third time in twenty-four hours, I called the other five members of the circle to a meeting.

* * *

"I know it sounds insane," I said, "but the idea of corporeal souls would have been insane a few days ago, too."

"Diana," Adam cut in, "That sounds…nice…and all, but if the books are as accurate as you're taking them to be, then the knife would be all the way in Cambridge. Would you expect us to go all the way to England to find a knife that may or may not exist?"

"Wow, you're right," I said. "I am so sorry…I should have thought about that before. Well, since we're all here…again…does anyone have a more reasonable solution?"

The room was silent, other than the miniscule noises that the daemons were making as they were being petted by the circle members. I hadn't even realized that I'd been stroking Raelia's neck the entire time. We were growing closer to them that I had thought we would.

"Okay, I'm leaving," Faye said, making her way toward the door. She paused and turned back. "Hey, Diana…can you come over and help me with that project we have in history?"

History project? Since when did Faye worry about school work, and if she needed help, why ask me? Especially considering we didn't _have_ a history project. But I could tell from the look in her eyes that she wanted me to go with her.

"Oh, um…yeah…" I sputtered nearly incoherently. I followed the other witch outside and to her car, but stopped before I got in. Faye looked at me expectantly, as if she really thought I would get in the car with her with no valid reason. "Do you really think I'd just go with you?" I asked incredulously. "What do you _want_ from me, Faye? You _do_ know we don't have a history project. Right?"

Faye rolled her eyes. "Did you really think I don't know that? I needed _some_ sort of excuse to get you alone." I waited, expecting her to tell me what she wanted. "I…I liked your idea, you know, about finding the knife," she murmured. She was uncomfortable about saying she agreed with me, and I was faintly surprised. Faye Chamberlain? _Agreeing_ with Diana Meade? The world must have been coming to an end. "It's just…I think it could work," she said, watching the door of the abandoned house to make sure nobody was coming out. "Do you have still have your pendulum?"

I nodded, but I was still confused. What would she want with a pendulum? I didn't think there was anything she needed to find, at least not anything that involved this.

"Meet me at my house in a few hours," she told me, grinning mischievously. "I've got an idea."

I hesitantly agreed, then led Raelia back to my truck. I supposed she could have wanted to search for her family's Book of Shadows, but we'd tried a pendulum on that before. I shook the thoughts away. I really needed to stop worrying about everything. I would find out in a few hours, anyway.

* * *

**Before anyone says anything, yes, I know that having a daemon the same gender as you doesn't mean you're gay, and yes, I know that just because you're gay doesn't mean your daemon is the same gender as you. I definitely would know; I'm lesbian myself and my daemon is male. Same with my girlfriend. Also, one of my friends has a female daemon but she's straight as a line. Just making sure no one thinks I was making assumptions xD**


	6. Chapter 6

**Another short one. I would have added more, but that would have been a really awkward place to stop xD**

* * *

"You got the pendulum?" Faye asked as soon as she let me into her house. I nodded and reached into my pocket to pull out the polished crystal that hung from a thin silver chain. "Perfect," she said, reaching for it.

I pulled it back, out of her reach. "Nuh uh, not until you tell me what you want to use it for," I demanded. She huffed and rolled her eyes, then led me into her dining room. A map of the world was spread out on the table, marked with little symbols all over the place. She threw her arm out dramatically, as if introducing a performer on a stage or something.

"We're going to find out where the Subtle Knife is."

I laughed. "Are you kidding?" Faye still looked serious. "You heard what Adam said; those books are set all the way in _England._ Why does it matter exactly where the knife is if we can't get to it?"

"Humor me," Faye responded. I sighed. There was no way she would let this go, and it couldn't do much harm, right? I held the pendulum over the center of the map, then felt Faye place her hand on top of mine. "Visualize the knife…um, cutting a window in the air, or something," I murmured.

I closed my eyes, thinking of the tool that would allow people to travel between worlds. To my surprise, the pendulum began to swing strongly in the direction of the United States. Keeping my concentration, I slowly moved the crystal over the country, and it pointed straight at the ocean outside Washington, quivering.

Faye and I exchanged a glance, and she quickly grabbed a pen to mark the spot the pendulum had shown us. I wasn't inclined to believe that the Subtle Knife was just sitting in the bottom of the ocean _that_ close to us, but my pendulum, made of clear quartz crystal, had never been wrong before.

"Well, would you look at that?" Faye smirked. "Don't run and tell the rest of the circle just yet; I want to see if it's actually there."

"_Faye,_ if it's actually there, it's going to be in the ocean, and we can't just take a casual trip to the bottom of the sea," I said. We'd just have to find another way to deal with the daemons.

* * *

"Diana, are you sure we shouldn't try?" Raelia asked me. We were laying on my bed, contemplating…well, everything. "I mean, maybe there's an island right there. You never know."

"Maybe…but I'd have to make the trip with Faye. Make excuses for school, and everything," I said. Raelia blinked at me, and I already knew what she was going to say.

"You have to make excuses for everything anyway, now that I'm around. And, you know, Faye isn't as bad as you make her out to be."

"Oh, really?" I said. "How so?"

"She's misunderstood," the deer daemon told me. "She's selfish and she wants things for herself…a lot…but she cares about you and the rest of the circle. I can tell."

"We'd have to tell everyone else," I said. "It would piss her off, but we'd still have to tell them. They'd need to come with us."

* * *

"Okay…I am so sorry I've been calling meetings so often," I said to the five frustrated-looking teenagers and their daemons, "but yesterday, Faye and I found out where the Subtle Knife is. I know you guys are…skeptical…about it, but it's actually _not_ in England. It's off the coast of Washington, right here. I think…well, actually, Faye and Lia convinced me to think that we should go see if we can find the knife. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it could be really helpful."

Faye was glaring at me, but I knew she'd agree to it even though the rest of the circle knew. They actually seemed okay with it, for the most part. Jake and Cassie, however, looked unsure.

"I'll go," Melissa volunteered, stepping forward. I assumed she just wanted to go because it was mostly Faye's idea.

"Me too," Adam said. "If daemons can become corporeal, then there's no reason the Subtle Knife and its properties don't exist," he admitted.

Jake and Cassie still looked uncomfortable with the idea, but their daemons actually seemed to feel differently.

"Oh, come on," I could hear Ossindrick saying to Cassie. "I don't want to _leave_ or anything, but think of what could happen if we found something that could take us to another _world_!"

Adelesia wasn't trying very hard to persuade Jake to agree, but then again, he didn't seem too against it either.

"Okay…we'll go," Cassie said, speaking for herself and Ossindrick.

Jake shrugged. "Oh, why do I even care? We'll go, too."


	7. Chapter 7

We snuck out of our houses and met at the wharf around eleven at night. Judging by the map, we should have been able to reach the area and come back before daybreak.

It was difficult to get Raelia out of the house without making too much noise, but we managed not to wake up my father in the process.

I couldn't believe what we were doing. In the dark, when it was actually happening rather than being talked about, it felt so wrong. We were going to _steal_ a boat, and we were going to take it nearly one hundred miles into the ocean to look for a fictional knife that may or may not actually be fictional.

I must have been out of my mind to ever have mentioned the Subtle Knife.

It was too late to change my mind, though. We were already carrying out our plans. Jake would already be hotwiring one of the boats at the wharf and the rest of the circle was already on its way.

Raelia and I were the last to join the circle on one of the boats. As I thought, Jake already had it running, the smooth purr of its engine interrupting the stuffy silence of the night air.

"Everyone ready?" Jake asked. There were quiet murmurs of consent and Jake drove the boat out to sea.

"And you're _sure_ we'll be back by dawn?" I asked over the noise of the engine. If there was one think I _didn't_ want, it was to get into trouble.

"Yeah, as long as we don't run into any issues out here," the possum-soul responded.

"Wait, what kind of issues?" Cassie asked.

"You know, storms, sea monsters, the usual," Jake joked. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Following the map, it took about two hours to get to the general area of the Knife. There wasn't an island anywhere around us, not even a small one.

"Let's do a spell," Melissa suggested, taking Faye and Adam's hands. I took Faye and Jake's hands into my own as well and the rest of the circle followed suite, connecting all of us. The daemons were gathered inside the circle, all of them touching each other as well. I could feel Raelia rubbing against Adelesia and Chasterion. It wasn't unpleasant; it actually felt nice, like I was _really_ connected to the people on either side of me.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on an image of a knife, the idea of the one we were searching for. I willed something, anything, to show us where it was, or to bring it to us.

There was a light noise in the water beside the boat, like a few tiny bubbles escaping at the surface. I waited patiently for something to happen…and then there was the soft _plink_ of metal hitting metal. I blinked open my eyes to see the knife right there in the middle of our daemons. It looked rather plain and dull, but there was a gouge in the floor of the boat where the blade rested against it. This knife…it could cut _metal._

Adam bent and picked the knife up by its handle. I couldn't believe the spell had actually worked. I had been almost sure we were all crazy.

"Okay, everyone needs to use extreme caution around this," Adam warned. "This knife can cut _anything._ That's how it can cut into other worlds," he said.

"Let me try it," Faye commanded.

"What do you want to use it for?" Adam asked, wary. I didn't blame him; Faye could be hard to trust at times.

"To get into another_ world_, dumbass," she retorted. Adam sighed and reluctantly held out the knife. I expected he couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse not to give it to her. Faye took the tool, but hesitated before using it. "Wait, how exactly do you do this?"

"Well, you feel around the air with the tip of it until you find a little niche, like a broken seam. And if you find one, you slide the knife in and…well, cut it open. I know that's probably not the best explanation," Adam admitted.

Faye snorted, but did as she was instructed. After a minute of fiddling around with the knife, she complained, "It's not _working_."

"Well, from what we understand, it takes practice. Only certain people are supposed to be able to use it, anyway," Pinseline said, letting Adam take a break from dealing with the fiery witch.

Chasterion growled at the pointer daemon as Faye replied. "What, so none of us can be 'certain people'?" she inquired. "We're _witches_; we can _make_ this thing work for us, for god's sake."

"Faye, I don't think that's a good idea," I warned. I wasn't going to get involved, but this was starting to sound dangerous. "This knife has magic, too, and not the kind that we use. Who knows what could happen if we mess around with it?"

"No, I want to try," Melissa cut in, and something glimmered in her eyes that gave me an uneasy feeling. "I'll help you spell the knife, Faye." Something seemed wrong. Ghambor was standing at Melissa's feet, but he seemed distant. His eyes stared blankly ahead and he barely moved at all. It was downright unnatural.

"Guys, _seriously_," I urged. "We should find out more about—"

"_No_, Diana," Melissa snapped, flaring up like a torch. I stepped back, surprised at the sudden anger in the shorter girl. "You can't try to control us anymore," she snarled. "You're not our mother." The witch turned to Faye. "_Do_ it," she demanded.

Even Faye looked frightened as she began chanting with Melissa. That wasn't normal; that wasn't how Melissa _behaved._

"Rumpere huiusce navigii in flammam, rumpere huiusce navigii in flammam," the girls repeated. I didn't like the tone of Melissa's voice and something told me it wasn't really her speaking. Maybe not a demon like the last time something like this happened, but it certainly wasn't her. There was no way she could have pulled those words out of thin air. I tried to comprehend what they were saying, but my knowledge of Latin was limited.

Jake, however, had always known a lot of Latin. The expression on his face as the meaning of the words dawned on him chilled me to the bone. "Everybody, _jump off the boat!_" he yelled, grabbing Melissa and pushing her over the edge then following. The rest of us, more scared than we had been in awhile, leaped overboard, too. Ghambor seemed to snap out of the haze he was in, then realized what was happening and jumped into the water just as the boat burst into flame.


	8. Chapter 8

** Cat40592, I'm just trying to make it a little realistic character-wise. You know what an exponential function is? I think that's pretty much what's going to happen with the amount of Faye/Diana content xD**

** catlover10808, I explained that before; not every gay person is going to have a same-gender daemon and not everyone with a same-gender daemon would be gay :) **

* * *

Melissa had been setting the boat on _fire_. Something had been controlling her, but it seemed to be gone; she looked just as surprised as the rest of us as we tread water just far enough away from the burning vessel.

"Did _I_ do that?" she asked, bewildered. "I just…one second I was standing there, then everything went dark, but…I could still hear what was going on…"

"Okay, we can try to figure that out later," I said. "We're at least a hundred miles from the coast and we don't have a boat. There's no way to get back."

Silence fell over the circle as they realized how serious the situation was. We could_ die_ out here; it would take hours upon hours to get back by swimming, and none of us would be able to keep going for that long. I could feel the cold water already sapping the heat out of my body, as well.

"We need to try the knife," I said. Everyone looked at me, doubt searing their eyes. "Well, maybe one of us _can_ use it," I continued. "It's our best chance right now."

"Ha, be my guest," Faye snickered, giving me the knife, which she was still holding. "I'd like to see little miss perfect fail at something."

I ignored the last comment and began feeling around the air with the tip of the Knife. I breathed deeply, feeling completely at ease with the blade in my hand. It felt almost natural to explore the air with the tool. I could_ feel_ things, little bumps where there shouldn't be anything solid. And suddenly, the knife caught in a miniscule gap in the semisolid air.

Carefully, I slid the blade inside to its hilt and cut a large rectangle open. "Unbelievable," Faye sighed, in a worse mood than she had been in before.

"Oh my god, you did it!" Adam gasped disbelievingly. He swam to the gap and peered in. "I don't know if this is the world we were looking for in the first place," he said, "but there's land. Come on."

He climbed in, Pinseline closely following him. I had to help Raelia in first before I pulled myself into the new world. For some reason, I wasn't expecting the geography to be so utterly different from our world. I would have expected to plunge right into another ocean, but there was firm ground beneath me just like Adam said. The air was warm and muggy; probably summer, wherever we were.

The rest of our group had filed in after us and I realized how sorry we all looked. We were sopping wet and shivering, accompanied by even wetter animals that looked as if they didn't all belong in one place.

"…What now?" Cassie asked blankly. It was a good question. _What now? _We couldn't go home, we had no idea where we were, and whatever was possessing Melissa couldn't possibly have been gone for good.

"I guess we…sleep," Jake said. "We can't do anything in the dark and we're all exhausted."

"We need someone to be a lookout," Adam said. "There are some dangerous things in these worlds that don't exist in ours. I'll take first shift," he volunteered.

"I'll go second," I said. There wasn't much of a chance that I would get to sleep anyway. We assigned watches for the rest of the night and then stretched out on the grass with our daemons. We were all quite spread apart for fear that someone might roll over and touch another person's daemon by accident.

I hesitated, glancing longingly in Faye's direction, but curled up with Raelia despite the fact that I wanted to sleep closer to the older girl. When we were younger we would have slumber parties a lot and I often found myself missing them. Now would have been the perfect opportunity to have that closeness with Faye had we not had our daemons with us.

I fell asleep thinking of those sleepovers.

* * *

We were startled awake as Adam frantically shook my shoulder. "Diana," he whispered urgently. I sat up, immediately alert. "We're being watched."

I glanced around. "What? By who? Witch hunters?" I asked softly.

"I don't know, probably," he replied. "I want you to stay on watch for now; I don't think they know I noticed them. They're in the bushes out there," he said, nodding his head toward the edge of a quite foreboding looking forest. It was only fifty or so yards away.

"I'm going to stay awake," he continued. "When you finish and wake Jake up, tell him the same thing. If they come after us, don't hesitate. Yell to wake everyone up, and then _run_. I don't want you getting hurt."

I nodded mutely. I was scared, but I had to do whatever I could to protect the circle, and if that was what Adam thought was best, I would do it. I trusted his judgement. I sat silently, resting a hand on Raelia's back. I looked to the bushes every so often to make sure nothing came out of them, but nothing ever did. I woke Jake up after a while and relayed Adam's message to him. He seemed to take it well, but Adelesia's fur stood on end when I told them what was going on.

I laid down again and stayed still for the whole night, rather uneasily. If witch hunters had followed us, why wouldn't they have attacked yet? What could they possibly be planning?


	9. Chapter 9

**Guys, I am really blocked right now and I only have enough material left for one, maybe two more chapters after this. How do you all break writer's block? I usually can by writing whatever comes to mind, but I'm having serious issues . So, I'm sorry if the updating slows up pretty soon.**

* * *

I was finally able to get up again at dawn. Everyone was tense and cautious, made worse by the fact that whoever was in the bushes had not yet shown themselves.

We decided to pass by our watchers and use magic on them whether they tried to attack us or not. Even if they seemed friendly, we would need to make sure we could trust them not to kill us.

As we approached the edge of the forest, I focused only on binding our followers, keeping them from moving. There were a few rustles, then they were stilled as our magic took effect. Faye lunged into the bushes, expecting to reveal the people, like the rest of us. I almost reached out to stop her, but figured it was safe if the people were being held. In half a second, she called us over, a hint of both confusion and frustration in her voice.

Raelia and I crept around the wall of foliage, still cautious. We were amazed to see two birds, a swan and a falcon, pinned to the ground by the bond of the circle's magic.

"What the hell? I swear I saw people last night," Adam said, unconvinced that there birds were the ones spying on us.

"You can let us go." The voice came from the swan, who looked at us evenly in the eye. "We didn't mean to frighten you."

Raelia stepped forward, lowering her head to get a closer look at the birds. Her ear twitched and she stepped back again, sudden realization flooding through the both of us.

"These are daemons," I said out loud, exchanging a glance with the rest of the circle. I didn't know how we knew; we just did.

"Whose daemons are you?" Cassie asked, more curious than anything. "Why were you watching us?"

"Do you see anyone around us?" the falcon daemon asked. "We're Witches' daemons, from the Northwest American clan. We'll introduce ourselves if you'd let us up," he continued. "I know you're witches, but you're not like our Witches. Too much dark energy. I can feel it."

Cassie hesitated, obviously uncomfortable at the fact that even people's daemons from a different world could tell she had dark magic. "I was born with the dark magic," she murmured. "I don't use it unless I have to. You can trust us."

"And what about _her_?" the swan asked, looking at me. "Does she use hers?"

"Wait…what?" I asked. "What are you talking about? Cassie's the only one with dark magic…"

"No, no, you've got it too," the falcon assured me. "You can't feel it? I'm nearly drowning it and I'm not even _near_ you. It runs in your veins, just like it does in Cassie's."

* * *

"Diana, I'm so sorry…" Cassie whispered, hugging me. "I didn't think you ever needed to find out…we got rid of Blackwell; he was never going to need you, so…"

Tears poured from my eyes. I had black magic. My father wasn't really my father. Yet he was still back at home, probably worrying his ass off over me and the rest of our coven, and I was sitting here learning that I was the spawn of Blackwell. Not that I had really thought less of Cassie for being his daughter, but it was completely different when I knew that I was related to him too.

"You knew. I can't believe you _knew_," I snapped, pulling out of the older girl's arms. "You knew for how long and never thought to tell me?"

"Blackwell told me when he got closer to me. I…I knew it would upset you, so I kept it from you. I'm sorry, but…it doesn't change anything. It doesn't change that you're my best friend or that you're the best leader this circle could have."

"Of course it doesn't," I sniffled, wiping the tears away. _But it does change how I perceive myself…_

I literally felt like I should _die_. I was about to ask someone to kill me, right then and there, because I knew how dangerous dark magic could be; not to me, but to the people I care about. Just by existing, I was threatening everyone's lives. I thought back to when Cassie had almost killed Adam, and I cringed at the thought that _I_ could accidentally do something like that.

I felt another hand on my back and I lifted my face to see Faye looking at me concernedly. "It'll be okay," she whispered gently. "It's alright…we know you would never hurt anybody," she continued as if she could read my mind. The soft hazel eyes that gazed into my own brown ones seemed so uncharacteristically caring…and that alone changed my mind. Faye was rarely serious, but when she was, she _meant_ it. I wouldn't hurt anybody.

"Okay, I can tell you don't mean anyone any harm," the swan daemon said gently, drawing my attention out of my reverie. I noticed that the birds were standing, and I realized our magic must have slipped away when we got distracted. "My name is Hentrixel. Serafina Pekkala told us to meet you here and escort you to our clan. She's busy herself, but we'll do fine."

"I'm Fahntriin," the falcon daemon added. "It's good to meet you all. If it's all the same…we'd like to be accompanied by our Witches," he said.


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay, I'm getting sick as well as blocked, so this will be the last chapter for a little while. I hope you guys enjoy it :) **

* * *

Alvina Norris and Eudora Tanzer were the names of the two witches to whom Hentrixel and Fahntriin were attached. They were very kind people and somehow seemed to know more about our situation that we did ourselves. As we traveled, they told us of a prophecy that was written by a Shaman a long time ago.

This prophecy apparently foresaw a group of six otherworldly witches who acquire daemons in a world where they shouldn't exist. It told where we were from and how we got to the daemon world, which was why Fahntriin and Hentrixel knew where to find us. However, the prophecy was apparently unfinished; the Shaman that had written it was killed before he could finish recording it.

When we finally stopped walking, probably around four long hours later, we found ourselves in the middle of a gorgeous forest, pine and deciduous trees scattered amongst each other. We were suddenly confronted with a large gathering of Witches, all of them garbed in thin, almost transparent black fabric and accompanied by bird daemons. I distractedly noted that this was probably because they could fly.

One of the Witches stepped forward. Her shining golden hair fell down her chest and back with the faintest of ripples, disturbed only where a small snowy owl daemon perched on one shoulder. Her pale blue eyes seemed to hold great wisdom though the woman looked no older than thirty-five. She held herself with an air of superiority, and somehow I knew what she was before she spoke a single word.

"Welcome," she began, a faint smile playing on her lips. "I am Arabella Upton, Queen of the Lynnwood Witches. As I'm sure Alvina and Eudora have told you, you're here so we can show you your prophecy and help you fulfill it. We'll aid you in any way we can." The woman paused, then continued. "I'll speak to the leader of your coven. The rest of you can disperse and talk with whomever you like. I'm sure everyone is eager to meet you."

For a moment, I stood still, unsure of what to do. We had never appointed an official leader to our circle and though I had been involuntarily filling that role, I didn't know whether or not I should be the one to conference with the Witch queen.

However, Faye gave me a little nudge, directing me toward the Queen. "Go on," she shispered, her tone gentler than I would have expected. She must have been just as awed by the powerful woman as I was.

"Um, g-greetings, Your Majesty," I stammered when I was directly in front of Arabella. I didn't know how to speak to any queen, let alone a Witch queen from a different world. "Uh, my name is Diana Meade. My daemon's name is Raelia. It's…an honor."

I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect the woman to break into a grin, laughing in a light, tinkling manner. "Please, don't call me 'Majesty'," she chuckles. "Just call me Arabella. Or even just Bella. My daemon's name is Ciellé."

"It's good to meet you, Diana and Raelia," the white owl said in a lilting feminine voice. My heart skipped a beat. The queen of a clan of Witches had a female daemon, just like me. I'd have to ask her about it sometime; despite the fact that I had ignored what having a female daemon could mean for me, I still wanted to know if it was actually anything other than a rarity.

"I'm going to show you the original prophecy, the one a Shaman named Joseph Ross wrote almost three hundred years ago," Arabella said, beginning to lead me away from the group and into the forest. "He carved it into a boulder to make sure it would never go away. He was a close friend of mine; when he was killed, he had told me about a bit more than he had written so I could guide you in the right direction when the time came."

I was taken aback by her words. "You were close friends with him? How?" That would make the woman at least three centuries old.

"In this world, Witches live for a long time. I may look young to you, but I'm three hundred ninety-seven years old."

"Three hundred ninety-seven?" I repeated, astonished. No wonder she had looked so wise. The Witch smiled at me.

"Yes; I was born in 1614. I am relatively young for a queen, but I was appointed by my predecessor on her deathbed just about seventy years ago." Arabella and I walked in silence for a few minutes, then we stopped in front of a huge stone slab that was half buried in the ground.

"Here it is," the Queen said, though it was made obvious by the script carved into the rock. It wasn't in English, but I could tell it was just begging to be read.

Arabella ran her hand over the ruts of the carvings. " 'Six magic-handlers of a world parallel, six souls torn from bodies unknowingly'," she recited. " 'A knife subtler than life to be found, a doorway cut from their world into ours on the three-hundredth night of the two thousand eleventh year at the edge of the Lynnwood forest. To succed in their journey, to exterminate a plague known to all worlds, traverse the great sea to the Bears' kingdom. A friend there will be found, offspring to previous rulers.'"

I was impressed. So far, the prophecy was spot on, even up to the date; I didn't know for sure, but September 28 had to at least be close to the three hundredth day of the year.

"The Bears' kingdom…" I murmured to myself. I vaguely remembered Adam mentioning something about bears back in the abandoned house when he first told us about daemons. It seemed like it had happened years ago, and I felt a sudden pang of homesickness. "Um, where is the Bear kingdom?" I quickly asked to distract myself from the urge to run back to my own world and go home to cuddle with Raelia until we fell asleep.

"Up north," Arabella promptly responded, "and halfway across the world: Svalbard."

"Okay…" How would we get all the way to Svalbard, which I recognized as being somewhere around Norway, and what for? We were there to send our daemons back into our bodies, not to 'exterminate a plague known to all worlds'. "What 'plague' are we upposed to get rid of?" I asked. I had many more questions, but I didn't want to overwhelm the Witch queen.

"Joseph told me you were coming to destroy all Witch hunters; I assume that's what he meant. There is some form of witch in every world, and in all of them, there are people that want to kill us. I'm sure you're familiar with that."

"More than you'd think, considering we're just sixteen and seventeen years old," I muttered. "That's actually how we wound up here in the first place. We were looking for some way to protect ourselves against the witch hunters and we thought we'd found one. It was a spell to make up more independent…brave, you know? But…it brought our daemons out. Don't get me wrong," I said, hugging Raelia with one arm, "I love Lia, and I wish there was some way to keep her out, but…it's just not possible."

"Diana…I'm not entirely sure there's any way to bind your daemons to you again at all," Arabella said gently. "Is there any way for you to work around them in your world?"

I started. "I…I don't think so…" For some reason, I had expected somebody to be able to reverse what we had done, but now that notion was gone and I was left with a slightly panicked feeling. Part of me, though, was relieved. If there was nothing we could do, then I could keep Raelia around without regrets. "It's too late now," I said, my voice laced with determination. "I'll just focus on this prophecy for now. How would we manage to get to Svalbard?"

Arabella's striking smile was back. "Aeronauts and Gyptians."


	11. Chapter 11

**Alright, guys…Secreta Animas is finally back :3 I'm so sorry it took so long and that this chapter is so short, but I'm pretty excited to be writing it again. I'd forgotten how attached I was to this concept. This chapter goes out to fLashinDances, for reviewing even after all that time and getting my sorry a$$ into gear so that I'd update right now :D**

"I'm Dearbhail Connolley, and this is my twin brother, Keegan. We'd love to help you, especially seeing as you're friends of Arabella's." The Woman had shoulder-length gold-orange hair and her brother's shorter mop of hair matched the shade perfectly. They spoke with Irish accents, which wasn't surprising considering their names, and their daemons were what looked like some kind of otter and an Ethiopian wolf. They both seemed nice, but Keegan was shyer, more withdrawn than his sister.

Aeronauts were just what they sounded like; they flew giant airships all over the world. The Connolleys had already been staying with the witches to be ready when they were needed. Their airship was huge; large enough at least to accommodate all of us, Alvina and Eudora, and our daemons. We would be flown from Lynnwood, which was this world's equivalent to Chance Harbor, to Ireland, where we would be met by the Gyptians.

It was such a big journey that I didn't know whether or not I was ready for it. We were plunging into the unknown and it frightened me, to say the least. I was grateful to have the rest of the circle, in any case. Without them, I would be nothing more than a lost child in a huge unfamiliar world.

When we stood in front of the airship, though, flanked by Cassie and Faye and followed by Melissa, Adam, and Jake, I felt an unnecessarily deep longing for adventure, and the strongest feeling of kinship I'd ever felt with the rest of the circle, and even the people we had just met that very day.

And when we stood in the airship as it lifted off of the ground, I felt no fear at all.

* * *

"Where are we?" I said, having to project my voice over the wind. We'd been traveling on and off for three days, the weather was getting progressively colder, and we weren't really equipped for dealing with an unexpected blizzard that was apparently heading our way. "Is there any shelter nearby?"

"Not quite," Keegan called back hesitantly. I had a feeling he was trying to hide the worried expression on his face, but I caught a glimpse of it anyway. "I'm pretty sure we're close to Newfoundland, or maybe Quebec. It's hard to tell.

"We may have to land even if we don't find a forest or a cavern soon," Dearbhail told me. "This blizzard is coming on fast, and if we're in the air when we hit it, we'd all be doomed. We'll have a better chance on the ground even if it's in the middle of the plains."

"Okay…wonderful," I said, then turned to make my way to the back of the airship, where the rest of the circle were huddled for warmth. "We may be in trouble," I said to them. "This storm that's coming can seriously hurt us. We need to make sure we stick together no matter what, especially when we land.

"Well, don't the Connolleys know what the hell they're doing?" Faye demanded from where she was sitting wedged between Jake and Melissa.

"Of course they do," I responded, "but the weather here is different from what we're used to, and I don't think they've experienced much of it either. Don't try to blame anything on them, Faye; they're trying to help us, after all."

"Hey, she's got a point," I could hear Chaterion whisper to Faye; he was sitting in her lap, and again I had to take a moment to marvel at how much _nicer_ Faye looked next to a cute animal like a fox.

"Okay, how long will it take until we get to the Ice Bears?" Cassie inquired. "I don't know how much longer we can keep going like this."

"I don't know," I told her. "We can't turn back or give up now, though. We have to keep going, no matter how hard it gets." And I have a feeling it's going to get pretty hard.


	12. Author's Note

Okay, I'll try to continue for you guys. I know the Secret Circle and His Dark Materials fan bases aren't as big as some other ones, but I'll just have push through that :) It's been a long time since I've last written anything for this, and believe me, I want to finish it too…but it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of time. I still have my responsibilities, and my senior project comes first and that's going to take a lot of my time, and I need to start applying to colleges, but I promise I'll try to keep writing this. I do miss it, and I'd like to see it finished one day. So, I'll work on it. There are some things that are going to bother me though, like the discrepancies between this and the books; how a knife bearer would technically have to have two fingers cut off and, you know, how the knife was actually destroyed in the last book, but let's all just ignore that and pretend it never happened xD

/end long author's note


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